AN ENTIRE STOCK OF BARGAINS 157 
Excepting for some staples, our process of retailing is, in 
fact, basically about as follows: We buy what in our best 
judgment we think our customers will, in turn, buy of us. 
We are not infallible; so, altogether naturally, out of the 
many things we buy only a small percentage of the goods 
will be in large demand. 
Tt is this large demand that provides our greatest total 
profits. It is curious but true that often merchants are so 
stocked up with purchases which have not been planned 
under the Model Stock Plan that they find their shelves 
clogged with goods which do not give a fast enough rate of 
turnover; and their shelves are short of goods they are not 
able to buy without still further overstocking. Often the 
stock is too large to leave any hope of final profit. So the 
buyer is not able to buy soon enough or in adequate quantities 
to replace the most desirable goods that customers have 
already bought out of his stock. 
Our real purpose in all planning is to buy large quantities 
of the goods on which we expect a rapid turnover. If we do 
not accurately plan our buying, we are likely to buy too much 
at the time when we should be merely trying to find out which 
way demand is really going to set in. 
It all gets back to our basic definition of the function of 
distribution, that it consists of buying for the customer. 
Planning under the Model Stock Plan, as we have already 
seen, consists essentially of finding out what customers 
want—perhaps before they themselves know—and then 
devising means to give them these goods at prices they are 
willing to pay. This kind of planning ahead requires 
thorough preparation. The buyer or merchant who would 
do it successfully must look carefully into such questions 
as the coming styles—in a line where style is important— 
the new types of articles, the possibility of scarcity of favored 
materials, fluctuations in demand, and all other factors in 
market conditions. He must, of course, be familiar with the 
statistics of previous years, stock summaries, sales, and so on, 
though often using them only as a first, rough basis for his 
planning for the coming period. All this information he